Colleges Rip Drug Testing, End Jail Classes

September 02, 1988|By John Lucadamo.

Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois Universities have ended longstanding programs of providing instructors for inmates in state prisons because of a state Department of Corrections policy requiring drug testing of workers.

An NIU representative said the university was ``uncomfortable`` with the policy, noting that the university wanted to reserve the right to choose what instructors would teach in the prisons.

There is a serious drug problem in Illinois prisons, and the Corrections Department is ``seeking a drug-free work force,`` Nic Howell, the department`s spokesman, said Thursday. He said the testing is ``having the desired effect`` by screening out certain people from employment, but he couldn`t say if it has reduced the amount of drugs in prison.

Drug testing has been required since Feb. 1 of all volunteers, new employees and any workers, such as the college teachers, who are on contract. The teachers were not affected until recently because they were working under an old contract.

Howell said the department is negotiating with other colleges and universities to fill in for SIU and NIU, adding that some 20 other

institutions, including Illinois State University, will continue providing faculty members to teach inmates. No other contractors have objected to the testing, he said.

Current corrections employees, except those suspected of drug dealing, were exempted because testing was not a condition of employment when they were hired, Howell said. No employees hired before Feb. 1 have been tested, he said.

``We can`t deny there is a drug problem in prisons,`` said George Shur, the NIU legal counsel who advised the university`s administration about participation in the program. However, he said, the Corrections Department cannot ``show the rationale for connecting university faculty members to the drug problem.``

Shur said, ``You`re not correcting the drug problem`` by not testing current employees. ``The problem had to be caused by someone, and those people have to be those connected with the prisons.``

The university is ``pretty uncomfortable`` with mandatory drug testing, Shur said, pointing out that the constitutionality of such testing has not been determined. The university believes that when it signs a contract with the Corrections Department, it ``must retain the right to choose who teaches courses`` for which the university awards academic credit, he said.

He questioned the accuracy of the department`s drug testing, and also said, ``There`s no correlation between drug use and dealing drugs.``

NIU faculty members have been teaching college-level courses to inmates at the Stateville and Dixon correctional institutions for more than 20 years, and last spring three inmates received bachelor`s degrees in general studies, said Diane Strand, a university spokeswoman.

Illinois State University recognizes the need for some type of drug screening, said Calvin Stockman, dean of the school of continuing education. But he said the university does not want the Corrections Department to set the terms for drug testing for its faculty members, who volunteer to teach inmates. A private laboratory does the testing for those faculty members, and that testing does not become part of the university`s records, he said.

Howell said ``we couldn`t work anything out`` with NIU and SIU.

The Corrections Department has tested 1,327 persons, of whom 34 tested positive for drug use, including 23 for marijuana and 7 for cocaine, Howell said. He also said 158 persons who were being considered for employment by either the department or a contractor chose not to be tested.